Yesterday, SAP announced that it is planning to acquire Qualtrics, that had been expected to go public this week, for a sum of $8 billion, in cash. Qualtrics is the global pioneer of the experience management (XM) software category that enables organizations to build a phenomenal employee culture and also to build iconic brands.
SAP has secured financing in the amount of €7 billion to cover purchase price and acquisition-related costs, which the company said in a statement that is expected to close in the first half of 2019.
Qualtrics would be SAP’s largest-ever purchase of a VC-backed enterprise software company, and the third-largest sale of any SaaS company. Post this acquisition the company will continue to be led by co-founder and CEO Ryan Smith and will retain its dual headquarters in Provo, Utah, and Seattle.
SAP + Qualtrics: The benefits ahead
SAP CEO, Bill McDermott said he was attracted to Qualtrics’ culture and its software’s ability to add customer sentiment and voice to the different applications SAP offers across its suite. Bringing together SAP’s experience data (X-Data) and Qualtrics’ Operational Data (O-Data) will help customers to better manage supply chains, networks, employees and core processes.
McDermott, said “Together, SAP and Qualtrics represent a new paradigm, similar to market-making shifts in personal operating systems, smart devices and social networks. SAP already touches 77 percent of the world’s transactions. For Qualtrics, this introduces a dynamic new partner with the belief, passion and scale to bring experience management to millions of customers around the world.”
SAP will enable Qualtrics to scale rapidly around the world with the help of SAP’s more than 413,000 customers and global sales force of around 15,000. “With this acquisition, Qualtrics expects full-year 2018 revenue to exceed US$400 million and projects a forward growth rate of greater than 40 percent, not including potential synergies of being part of SAP”, said SAP in their press release.
Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics, said “Our mission is to help organizations deliver the experiences that turn their customers into fanatics, employees into ambassadors, products into obsessions and brands into religions. Supported by a global team of over 95,000, SAP will help us scale faster and achieve our mission on a broader stage. This will put the XM Platform everywhere overnight. We could not be more excited to join forces with Bill and the SAP team in this once-in-a-generation opportunity to power the experience economy.”
To know more about this news in detail, head over to SAP official website.
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